Space Assassin (book)
|references=400 |authors=Andrew Chapman |illustrator=Geoffrey Senior |coverillustrator=Christos Achilleos |year=February 1985 |number=12 |ISBN=ISBN 0-14-031861-5 |prevbookp=Talisman of Death |nextbookp=Freeway Fighter |wcoverillustrator=N/A |wyear=N/A |wnumber=N/A |wISBN=N/A |prevbookw=N/A |nextbookw=N/A |pufimage= |wizimage= }} Space Assassin is a single-player role-playing gamebook written by Andrew Chapman, illustrated by Geoffrey Senior and originally published in 1985 by Puffin Books. It forms part of Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's Fighting Fantasy series. It is the 12th in the series in the original Puffin series (ISBN 0-14-031861-5). There are currently no announced plans to republish this book as part of the modern Wizard series. Creation In Warlock Magazine Issue 3, Space Assassin was referred to in the "Fighting Fantasy News" section as a soon to be released book called Assassin.It was also pegged to be published as the thirteenth book, after The Rings of Kether as book 12. The Rings of Kether went on to become the 15th book in the series. Mission Briefing ''Space Assassin is the second Fighting Fantasy book in the science fiction genre, the first being Starship Traveller. The book places the player on the starship Vandervecken, where a crazed scientist named Cyrus plans to unleash a hideous experiment upon the player's homeworld. The player must make their way through the labyrinthine Vandervecken, overcoming robots, mutants and other science fiction staples until they finally confronts the scientist. If the player manages to defeat him the planet will be saved and the game will end successfully. Introduction/Your Abilities/Using Luck/Armour/Selecting Weapons/Hand-to-Hand Combat/Gunfire/Recovering Stamina/Carrying Equipment The book in general follows the original rules set down in The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. (see Game System) Unique Rules *''Space Assassin'' introduced the first futuristic attribute in the form of armour, a 1d6 plus 6 roll. This worked similar to the Testing Your Luck system of the gamebooks to determine if a player was protected by their armour. *A player's weapons are determined by a 1d6 roll with the amount rolled able to be "spent" on a choice of weapons: Electric lash, Assault blaster, Grenade, Gravity bomb, Armour *Players are also limited to carrying a maximum of five items at any one time (excluding weapons). *Instead of Provisions there are Pep Pills which restore 5 stamina at a time. Equipment List *4 Pep Pills *weapons (see above for determination of weapons) Cover and Illustrations Covers The original cover of the book was designed and illustrated by Christos Achilleos. #Price of 1st Impression; £1.95 for 4th Impression #Price of 6th Impression #Price of 9th Impression (Barcode Indicator suggests actually 10th Impression) Illustrations The interior illustrations were by Geoffrey Senior. There were 31 full page illustrations and 5 minor repeated illustrations scattered throughout the text. The paragraphs with a full page illustration were: 1, 14, 20, 31, 39, 48, 61, 88, 109, 117, 131, 138, 159, 171, 185, 208, 230, 246, 252, 266, 281, 292, 308, 318, 324, 332, 359, 369, 373, 381 and 395. Intertextual References Other Media Main Characters YOU: Hero of Space Assassin *Cyrus Locations *Od *''Vandervecken'' Encounters *Bivalve *Carnivorous Plant *Cleaners *Cyrus *Humans - Guards/Security/Technician *Mutants *Razor Disk *Robots - Guards/Laser Globe/Micro-Helicopter/Portabots/Sentinels *Scallopian Fang *Simulacrums *Strangling Vines *Tharn Doppelgänger *Toroid *Winged Scorpion *Zark Further Notes *In the first edition of Sorcery! 3 (The Seven Serpents), the book was not listed as a forthcoming release, although two books that were never published were (Dragon Master and The Lord of Shadow Keep). It seems likely that after The Lord of Shadow Keep was published by a different publisher, Space Assassin took its place. *Has the longest Contents page of any Fighting Fantasy to date. Dedication For Keith A., Martin A., Virginia A., Ian B., Mark B., Steve B. Frank C., Rosemary C., Sonia C., Ron E., Andrea G., Richard G., Karl M., Mary M., Svetlana P., Claire S., Stephen S., Linda T.-M., Mick U., Malcolm W. See Also *''Deathlord'' *''Fighting Fantasy'' *''Seas of Blood'' *''The Rings of Kether'' External Links *Character Sheet *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series.php?id=11 Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks on Gamebooks.org] *[http://www.gamebooks.org/show_item.php?id=49 Space Assassin on Gamebooks.org] *[http://web.archive.org/web/20051127132124/www.fightingfantasy.com/ffb12.htm Space Assassin on the Internet Archive record of the old Fightingfantasy.com site] References Category:1985 books Category:Fighting Fantasy Original Series Category:FF12 Entries